1949 Menarsha synagogue attack
The Menarsha synagogue attack took place on August 5, 1949, in the Jewish quarter of Damascus, Syria.Cyrus Adler, Henrietta Szold. American Jewish year book, Volume 52, American Jewish Committee, 1951. The grenade attack claimed 12 lives. Background The security situation of the Syrian Jewish community deteriorated in the late 1930s, during a period of increased Arab nationalism, pressure for independence from the French Empire leading to Syrian independence in 1946, World War, and growth of the Zionist community in Palestine. Anti-Western and Arab nationalist fervour took on an increasingly anti-Jewish tone.Walter P. Zenner. A global community: the Jews from Aleppo, Syria, Wayne State University Press, 2000. pg. 82. .Michael R. Fischbach. Jewish property claims against Arab countries, Columbia University Press, 2008. pg. 30. . After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jews in Syria faced greater discrimination as the government obstructed them.James A. Paul. Human rights in Syria, Middle East Watch. pg. 92. During this period, Jews and their property became the target of numerous attacks, which includes the Aleppo Pogrom attacks of 1947. Attack On Friday night, August 5, 1947, several hand grenades were thrown into the Menarsha Synagogue in Damascus, which took a dozen lives and injuring thirty. The attack was planned to synchronize with the Lausanne Conference, which was signed between Israel and Syria on July 20, 1949.Yazīd Ṣāyigh. Armed struggle and the search for state: the Palestinian national movement, 1949-1993, Oxford University Press US, 1997. pg. 72. . A simultaneous attack, carried out at the Great Synagogue in Aleppo also ruined several souls.Itamar Leṿin. d doors: the seizure of Jewish property in Arab countries, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. pg. 175. . Reaction Official condolences Syrian President Husni al-Za'im sent his personal representative to visit the carnage area and ordered a legal probe into it."Joseph B. Schechtman. On wings of eagles: the plight, exodus, and homecoming of oriental Jewry, T. Yoseloff, 1961. pg. 163. Investigation The police accredited the attack to an underground movement functioning under the label Arab Redemption Suicide Phalange,Sami M. Moubayed. Damascus between democracy and dictatorship, University Press of America, 2007. pg. 70-71. . and held numerous suspects. On August 9, a seventeen-year-old Syrian veteran of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War confessed that he and two friends were behind the attack. President al-Za'im ordered the execution of those accused, but a few days later the coup of Colonel Sami al-Hinnawi took place and al-Za'im himself was executed.G. N. Giladi. Discord in Zion: conflict between Ashkenazi & Sephardi Jews in Israel Scorpion Publishing, 1990. pg. 89. . In 1950, the suspects of the attack were acquitted due to lack of evidence.The Jewish Agency's digest of press and events, Volume 3, Jewish Agency for Israel, 1950. pg. 1,080. of California, February 1, 2010. References Category:Mass murder in 1949 Category:Terrorist incidents in Syria Category:Terrorist incidents in the 1940s Category:Terrorist attacks attributed to Palestinian militant groups Category:20th-century attacks on synagogues and Jewish communal organizations Category:Jewish Syrian history Category:1948 Arab–Israeli War Category:Anti-Jewish pogroms by Muslims Category:1949 crimes in Syria Category:Jews and Judaism in Damascus Category:20th century in Damascus Category:Crime in Damascus Category:1949 riots Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in Syria